Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) blasted Meet the Press host David Gregory for throwing softball questions at National Security Advisor Susan Rice on Benghazi, saying: “I get tougher questions in the Bojangles drive-thru than he asked her.”
Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press for the first time since her 2012 post-Benghazi round on the Sunday shows, Rice was asked by Gregory if she had any regrets about that appearance and whether she felt that it cost her the secretary of State job.
Rice was also asked if we’re any closer to finding those responsible for the murder of four Americans that night, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. “The United States stays on the case. This president, our President Obama, has said that we do what will it takes to bring the perpetrators to justice,” she said. “And indeed, we will.”
“I would love the chance to ask follow-up questions of Susan Rice because David Gregory apparently did not avail himself of that opportunity,” Gowdy said on Fox. “There is no regret about lying to your fellow citizens, no regret — no regret about the fact that in 18 months, not a single solitary person has been brought to justice. No regret for misleading the families and loved ones of those four murdered Americans. I can certainly help her if she is struggling to come up with an area of regret. Who did she talk to before she went on the Sunday talk shows? Did she call Hillary Clinton? Did she call Gregory Hicks in Libya? Did she do any due diligence at all?”
Gowdy stressed that the truth “undercuts the narrative that the president has been engaged in during the campaign.”
“Remember, we were in the midst of a campaign. Al-Qaeda is on the run and Osama bin Laden is dead. Well, apparently al-Qaeda was not on the run. They were at the front door of our facility in Benghazi getting ready to kill our ambassador, burn it down. So she could either tell the truth or she can blame it on a video for which there was no evidence whatsoever, and she opted to protect her career and pair up the talking points that were provided her by the White House.”
Gowdy, who sits on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said to this day “a lot of the classified documents are classified to protect political careers, not to protect national interest.”
“There are four committees that have been looking into this for 18 months. To my knowledge, not a single one has had an opportunity to ask the follow-up questions that David Gregory failed to ask on Sunday. It may be time to put our efforts together with a select committee with subpoena power,” he said. “Because, as you know, I can’t subpoena anyone. I can’t subpoena the greeter at Walmart. I have no subpoena power. The committee chairman and the speaker do. And I’m about ready to Ms. Rice some questions under oath, not David Gregory questions about what’s your favorite color, but serious questions about why you had so little intellectual curiosity as to question the talking points that you were asked to parrot. Did you ask anybody to prove to you that this was a video or did you just go out and parrot it?”
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